Chapter V.

Continuing the exposition of the disputed passage, which
he had begun, Ambrose brings forward four reasons why we affirm that
something cannot be, and shows that the first three fail to apply to
Christ, and infers that the only reason why the Son can do nothing of
Himself is His Unity in Power with the Father.

49. In what sense
can the Son do nothing of Himself? Let us ask what it is that He
cannot do. There are many different sorts of
impossibilities. One thing is naturally impossible, another is
naturally possible, but impossible by reason of some weakness.
Again, there are things which are rendered possible by strength,
impossible by unskilfulness or weakness, of body and mind.
Further, there are things which it is impossible to change, by reason
of the law of an unchangeable purpose, the endurance of a firm will,
and, again, faithfulness in friendship.

50. To make this clearer, let us consider the
matter in the light of examples. It is impossible for a bird to
pursue a course of learning in any science or become trained to any
art: it is impossible for a stone to move in any direction,
inasmuch as it can only be moved by the motion of another body.
Of itself, then, a stone is incapable of moving, and passing from its
place. Again, an eagle cannot be taught in the ways of human
learning.

51. It is, to take another example,
impossible for a sick man to do a strong man’s work; but in this
case the reason of the impossibility is of a different kind, for the
man is rendered unable, by sickness, to do what he is naturally capable
of doing. In this case, then, the cause of the impossibility is
sickness, and this kind of impossibility is different from the first,
since the man is hindered by bodily weakness from the possibility of
doing.23722372 Cf.
Aristotle, Eth. Nic. I. viii. 15.

52. Again, there is a third cause of
impossibility. A man may be naturally capable, and his bodily
health may allow of his doing some work, which he is yet unable to do
by reason of want of skill, or because his rank in life disqualifies
him; because, that is, he lacks the required learning or is a
slave.23732373 Cf.
Aristotle, Eth. Nic. I. viii. 15.

53. Which of these three different causes of
impossibility, think you, which we have enumerated (setting aside the
fourth) can we meetly assign to the case of the Son of God? Is He
naturally insensible and immovable, like a stone? He is indeed a
stone of stumbling to the wicked, a cornerstone for the
faithful;237423741
Pet. ii. 7, from Isa. xxviii. 16. but He is not
insensible, upon Whom the faithful affection of sentient peoples are
stayed. He is not an immovable rock, “for they drank of a
Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.”237523751 Cor. x. 4. The work of the Father, then, is
not rendered impossible to Christ by diversity of nature.

54. Perchance we may suppose some things were made
impossible for Him by reason of weakness. But He was not weakly
Who could heal the weaknesses of others by His word of authority.
Seemed
269He weak when bidding
the paralytic take up his bed and walk?23762376 S. Mark ii. 11. He charged the man to perform an
action of which health was the necessary condition, even whilst the
patient was yet praying a remedy for his disease. Not weak was
the Lord of hosts when He gave sight to the blind,23772377Ps. cxlv. 8. made the crooked to stand upright,
raised the dead to life,23782378 S.
Matt. xi. 5. anticipated
the effects of medicine at our prayers, and cured them that besought
Him, and when to touch the fringe of His robe was to be
purified.23792379 S. Mark vi. 56.

55. Unless, peradventure, you thought it was
weakness, you wretches, when you saw His wounds. Truly, they were
wounds piercing His Body, but there was no weakness betokened by that
wound, whence flowed the Life of all, and therefore was it that the
prophet said: “By His stripes we are
healed.”23802380Isa. liii. 5. Was He,
then, Who was not weak in the hour when He was wounded, weak in regard
of His Sovereignty? How, then, I ask? When He commanded the
devils, and forgave the offences of sinners?23812381 S. Luke v. 20. Or when He made entreaty to the
Father?

56. Here, indeed, our adversaries may
perchance enquire: “How can the Father and the Son be One,
if the Son at one time commands, at another entreats?”
True, They are One; true also, He both commands and prays: yet
whilst in the hour when He commands He is not alone, so also in the
hour of prayer He is not weak. He is not alone, for whatsoever
things the Father doeth, the same things doeth the Son also, in like
manner. He is not weak, for though in the flesh He suffered
weakness for our sins yet that was the chastisement of our peace upon
Him,23822382Isa. liii. 5. not lack of sovereign Power in
Himself.

57. Moreover, that thou mayest know that it
is after His Manhood that He entreats, and in virtue of His Godhead
that He commands, it is written for thee in the Gospel that He said to
Peter: “I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail
not.”23832383 S.
Luke xxii. 32. To
the same Apostle, again, when on a former occasion he said, “Thou
art the Christ, the Son of the living God,” He made answer:
“Thou art Peter, and upon this Rock will I build My Church, and I
will give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven.”23842384 S. Matt. xvi. 18. Could He not, then, strengthen
the faith of the man to whom, acting on His own authority, He gave the
kingdom, whom He called the Rock, thereby declaring him to be the
foundation of the Church? Consider, then, the manner of His
entreaty, the occasions of His commanding. He entreats, when He
is shown to us as on the eve of suffering: He commands, when He
is believed to be the Son of God.

58. We see, then, that two sorts of
impossibility furnish no explanation,23852385i.e. we
are not to suppose that in S. John v. 19 Jesus refers to any sort of physical
impossibility, to any external restraint or limitation. inasmuch as the Power of God can be
neither insensible nor weakly. Will you then proffer the third
kind [as an account of the matter], namely, that He can do nothing,
just as an unskilled apprentice can do nothing without his
master’s instructions, or a slave can do nothing without his
lord. Then didst Thou speak falsely, Lord Jesu, in calling
Thyself Master and Lord, and Thou didst deceive Thy disciples by Thy
words: “Ye call Me Master and Lord, and ye say well, for so
I am.”23862386 S. John xiii. 13. Nay,
but Thou, O Truth, wouldst never have deceived men, least of all them
whom Thou didst call friends.23872387 S.
John xv. 14, 15.

59. Yet if our enemies sunder Thee from the
Creator, as being unskilled, let them see how they affirm that skill
was lacking to Thee, that is to say, to the Divine Wisdom; for all
that, however, they cannot divide the unity of substance that Thou hast
with the Father. It is not, indeed, by nature, but by reason of
ignorance, that the difference exists between the craftsman and the
unskilled; but neither is handicraft attributable to the Father, nor
ignorance to Thee, for there is no such thing as ignorant wisdom.

60. Therefore, if insensibility is no attribute of
the Son, and if neither weakness, nor ignorance, nor servility, let
unbelievers put it to their minds for meditation that both by nature
and sovereignty the Son is One with the Father, and by its working His
power is not at cross-purpose with the Father, inasmuch as “all
things that the Father hath done, the Son doeth likewise,” for no
one can do in like fashion the same work that another has done, unless
he shares in the unity of the same nature, whilst he is also not
inferior in method of working.

61. Yet I would still enquire what it
is that the Son cannot do, unless He see the Father doing it. I
will take the fool’s line, and propound some examples drawn from
things of a lower world. “I am become a fool; ye have
compelled me.”238823882 Cor. xii. 11. What
indeed is more foolish than to debate over the majesty of God, which
rather occasions questionings, than godly instruction which is in
faith.238923891 Tim. i. 4; vi. 20, 21. But to
arguments let argu270ments
reply; let words make answer to them, but love to us, the love which is
in God, issuing of a pure heart and good conscience and faith
unfeigned. And so I stickle not to introduce even the ludicrous
for the confutation of so vain a thesis.

62. How, then, does the Son see the Father?
A horse sees a painting, which naturally it is unable to imitate.
Not thus does the Son behold the Father. A child sees the work of
a grown man, but he cannot reproduce it; certainly not thus, again,
does the Son see the Father.

63. If, then, the Son can, by virtue of a
common hidden power of the same nature which He has with the Father,
both see and act in an invisible manner, and by the fulness of His
Godhead execute every decree of His Will, what remains for us but to
believe that the Son, by reason of indivisible unity of power, does
nothing, save what He has seen the Father doing, forasmuch as because
of His incomparable love the Son does nothing of Himself, since He
wills nothing that is against His Father’s Will? Which
truly is the proof not of weakness but of unity.23902390 Our Lord did not
simply assert that He and His Father are One, without revealing to
those, at least, who had faith to perceive it, what is one great bond
of that Unity, showing men, so far as man can comprehend the matter,
what that Unity consists in, viz., absolute and perfect harmony of
will.

2390 Our Lord did not
simply assert that He and His Father are One, without revealing to
those, at least, who had faith to perceive it, what is one great bond
of that Unity, showing men, so far as man can comprehend the matter,
what that Unity consists in, viz., absolute and perfect harmony of
will.